Prosecutors said the Peggs were separated at the time of the killing. Joanna Pegg, 37, and their 7-year-old daughter met with Pegg on July 30, 2010, at a Michie, Tenn., home. Investigators said the daughter told police that her parents got into an argument.

Prosecutors said Pegg cut his wife’s throat and shot her.

Pegg took his daughter, who was not harmed, to a relative’s home before driving to Alcorn County, where he shot his wife again and killed her.

Pegg was arrested by the Corinth police, who had been alerted of a possible homicide in McNairy County. An officer stopped the suspect’s vehicle on Mississippi Highway 2 and found Joanna Pegg’s body in the bed of the truck.

Pegg also pleaded guilty to a firearm possession charge and was sentenced by Circuit Judge Thomas Gardner to 20 years, which was to run consecutively to the life sentence.